September 18, 2026 · Andre K.
The badge is new. The habits are not.
My airline badge still looks new. I am a first officer at a regional. Two of us up front, a cabin full of people connecting through cities I used to see only on a chart, and a schedule that does not care that this is my first month on the line.
Getting here was not a montage. It was ratings, time in smaller airplanes, and a training program that assumed the books were already in my head. The type course gets the attention. The earlier writtens were where I learned how to study instead of how to cram the night before. I would rather have that habit on a deadhead than discover I never built it.
Line flying so far is flows, callouts, and a captain who has seen this airport in worse weather than I have. I ask the plain question on the ground. I don't save it for the approach. That is the whole trick they keep repeating in training, and it turns out they mean it.
I still like the pushback. The job feels real when the jet moves and the plan is the one we briefed, not the one I hoped would show up. The certificate got me in the door. The studying is what I intend to keep doing after the badge stops looking new.